Everyone knows that accountants count things. But counting things isn’t always as helpful as it might be. if you count the wrong things and/or in the wrong way it’s pointless. The skill is to know what to count, how to count it, and when to count it. Most financial statistics are backward looking, even if they are produced weekly or even daily, it’s still old news. Can you imagine if the newspapers where reporting on last week, months or even years news? One of things that a good garage will tell you when you bring a car in is what is OK now but will need fixing in the near future. This could save you a very big bill in the future by solving a problem now. And that’s what a good accountancy reporting system should be doing.
Identifying the figures, ratios and percentages that are really important to know (and most will not be available from the books, you will have to go out and collect them) ; the ones that drive FUTURE performance. The equivalent of recognizing that you need to change the oil now to stop the engine seizing up in a few months time. Sticking with the car metaphor, Sat-Nav systems tell you where to turn before the turn, not tell you what you should have done 20 miles down the road in a traffic jam.
Although perhaps that’s an optional extra for the more masochistic driver.